Trying to stay up to date with whatever ATF should be used in my 1996 Legacy 2.2L. Manual requires DexronIII.

 

I picked up a whole case of Chevron ATF at Costco thinking it was DexronIII/Mercon. When I went to change 4.5 quarts of transmission fluid, I smelled a bottle of Valvoline DexronIII and the new Chevron MD-3 and they smelled VERY different - DexIII is sweeter smelling;) . Both were the usual red ATF color.

 

I flipped the Chevron MD-3 bottle around to see what the rating was. The text is similar to what they have on the website.

https://www.cbest.chevron.com/generated/MSDS/PDS7676241.PDF

 

If you navigate to their ATF products, you will see a link for the DexronIII line and it leads you to the same MD-3 link above.http://www.chevronlubricants.com/worldwide/northamerica/na_personalvehicles/na_chevron_personalvehicleapps/chev_personal_prodindex.asp

 

At this point, I decided to run the MD-3 into the car and see what happens since Chevron MD-3 appears to be equivalent to DexronIII. Some Internet surfing turned up this link discussing the naming convention change:

http://theoildrop.server101.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=888796&Main=888113

 

Anyone else run across this MD-3 designation yet?

[...]

I picked up a whole case of Chevron ATF at Costco thinking it was DexronIII/Mercon. When I went to change 4.5 quarts of transmission fluid, I smelled a bottle of Valvoline DexronIII and the new Chevron MD-3 and they smelled VERY different - DexIII is sweeter smelling;) . Both were the usual red ATF color.

[...]

As far as I know, MD-3 is "functionally" equivalent to Mercon/Dexron-III. Since GM is no longer licensing Dexron-III production, the oil companies are unable to use the name, and they apparently have changed the formulation as well. The fluids "should" be compatible, but perhaps a flush with all new fluid would be prudent, especially if trans mileage is high since the last change.

 

Of course, there's always Dexron-VI.

 

See: http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:fh4YK5t3UxkJ:www.gm.com/automotive/gmpowertrain/transmissions/DEXRON-VI-Service_Fill_Release.doc+Dexron+vi+iii&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

Yeah, this is ATF fluid change 1 of 3 as part of the el-cheapo "flush" in my garage. So a large part of the fluid in the transmission will be MD-3.